You WANT to Get Ghosted
Grant Check-In with GoodGhosting
It stinks to get ghosted. Or does it? If you’re dApp creator GoodGhosting, you combine gamification and DeFi to create a social savings challenge that rewards financial discipline. GoodGhosting was a recipient of a MakerDAO grant from MetaGammaDelta DAO to help bootstrap the project. We recently caught up with Rachel Black, founder and CEO of GoodGhosting and MGD member to find out what’s new for the dApp as we approach its 1-year anniversary and also discuss women finding our place in Web3.
What is GoodGhosting?
GoodGhosting emerged from an idea at ETHLondon February 2020. Like so many people, Rachel struggled with financial goals and reaching them. Additionally, she found there were plenty of financial tools suited for people who hold large amounts of crypto to grow their assets. But she saw a lack of resources for the everyday crypto enthusiast or crypto curious to build their assets.
“GoodGhosting is designed for the everyday person who wants to put in a smaller amount and still get something meaningful and help them build up their portfolio,” Rachel explained.
Members join a savings pool and must make regular deposits. If a participant misses a deposit — or “ghosts” the group — they forgo their portion of the interest to the other members. “It can be a really nice return if you stick to your goals and you are accountable to them.” Even the ghoster gets their original deposit paid into the savings pool returned to them once the savings competition ends.
Early Funding Matters
GoodGhosting received a Maker DAO grant from MetaGammaDelta DAO late 2020 which helped transition what started as code on a blockchain to an entity with a minimum viable product soft launch June 2021. The benefits of early grants from MGD, Gitcoin, Aave, Polygon, Celo and other partners is twofold. The financial support helps with bootstrapping efforts and keeping the bills paid. However, “It’s a really nice vote of confidence you’re building something people are interested in. Lets you know you’re on to something.”
Happy Birthday GoodGhosting:
June 10 is GoodGhosting’s 1-year birthday of their soft launch. In that year, GoodGhosting helped participants save over $2.6 million. To celebrate, Rachel and her team are throwing a multi-tiered summer tournament which kicks off in GoodGhosting’s Discord group.
In addition to this 6-pool, 2-month birthday bash, the team will be busy rolling out Version 2 over the summer which she said will be more flexible and offer more yield strategies.
Web3 is for Everyone:
For women who are struggling to find their place in Web3, Rachel says now is a great time to jump in and learn. “When I originally got into the space it was very catered to developers and not so mature. Even as a developer it was hard to build meaningful stuff because we didn’t have many of the tools we have now.”
However, as the Web3 infrastructure grows, Rachel said skills outside Web3 are necessary. In the last 2 years she’s seen an explosion of skills on Web3. Everything from community builders, operations, artists, musicians to business and data analytics. “Don’t feel if you’re not a developer that (Web3) is not for you. You only need to be in the space a little bit to learn a huge amount.”
Rachel said people outside the development and coding side of blockchain is valuable because it helps them develop products that everyone can use. User-friendly, intuitive UX is critical for adoption. A fresh perspective can help avoid a techspeak echo chamber when designing products. In fact, when looking to fill a marketing position, the team didn’t want someone coming with 3–4 years of similar, immersive Web3 experience. For Web3 to succeed with a wider audience, “we need to open it up and make it more understandable and digestible for everyone.”
How Can I Participate and Introduce Others to Web3?
“Communicating what Web3 is and how it can be used is a massive job,” Rachel said. “So the more people on board the better.” Bringing users outside Web3 to test user experience and poke around the website is helpful. MGD members helped with some of the beta testing and feedback that helped created their MVP. She encourages the curious and interested to try the savings pools, let them know what works, what doesn’t, what they like and don’t like about the interface and even website copy. Continuous user feedback helps GoodGhosting and other thoughtful dApp developers to always keep the end-user perspective in mind. And “by all means, pop in our Discord and say hello!”
